Tastes Like Rain
by Twisted Little Star
Summary: Alicia Spinnet is struggling through her own personal hell. And this time there´s no knight in shining armour around to save her... Sequel to 'You Make Me Beautiful'
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Harry Potter. Not in the slightest.

**Author´s note:** Well, here it is at last. The long-awaited (at least for my part) sequel to You Make Me Beautiful´. Hope you like it, cause I sure do.

Since I haven't reached 100 reviews on YMMB yet, I dedicate this chapter to my cat, Brandy, because she´s pretty.

"_I don´t think this is working."_

She lay awake in the middle of the night, staring into the darkness and trying to chase away the words. It didn´t work, it never did. They were etched too deep into her mind to allow her to get rid of them that easily. But still she tried, tossing and turning and begging whoever could hear her to please let her go to sleep.

At last she gave in and got up from her bed. Perhaps a walk would help her, it had worked before. Putting on a pair of shoes and a robe, she quietly left the room, careful not to wake up the other girls sleeping there. She didn´t want to talk to them, not right now. Besides, she had no right to take away their sleep just because she couldn´t sleep herself.

"_There´s nothing wrong with you. I just… I think we´ve grown apart."_

For a while she just walked aimlessly around the castle, trying without any results to shut out his voice. But soon she found that her feet were steering her towards the Prefects´ Bathroom.

"I shouldn´t go there," she muttered darkly to herself. Still, she already knew that she wouldn´t turn back. She never did, she wasn´t strong enough. Inevitably she would end up there, in the place which held so many memories, good and bad.

Once inside, she discarded her clothes and started filling the pool, getting a moment´s amusement out of the many taps. She never got tired of watching the different types of foam fill the pool. However, when it was filled and she slipped into it, enjoying the warmth, her face again took on a solemn expression as the memories filled her mind.

He had come here with her to bath a couple of times, though he wasn´t really allowed as he wasn´t a Prefect. But somehow being with him made her overlook the rules and just do what she wanted. They´d had so much fun here, splashing each other with water, nearly drowning each other, and then…

She let out a groan and went underwater, holding her breath for as long as she could. There, under the water, she thought for a fleeting moment that she saw his face in a bubble. But of course it was just a hallucination, caused by tiredness and lack of oxygen.

As usual she stayed under a couple of seconds longer than her lungs really could take, coming as close to drowning as was humanly possible without actually drowning. Then, as her lungs started to burn, she burst through the surface and breathed in deeply, enjoying the air. But not even the wonderful feeling of being able to breathe again could keep her from remembering the last time she had been here with _him_.

xxxxx

_She stared at the letter, once again trying to comprehend the words she read. The tears which had came when she´d first read it were drying on her cheeks, the immediate sorrow being replaced with something deeper and stronger which made her feel empty and hollow inside._

"_Leesh?" George said behind her._

"_Yes?" She turned to look at him, expecting him to ask her what was wrong. But he didn´t. It was as if he didn´t notice the fresh tear trails down her cheeks. _

"_I need to talk to you alone. Can we go somewhere we won´t be interrupted? And where no one can hear what we´re saying." _

_She nodded. "Sure. I have something I need to tell you too, actually." She waited for a moment, but he still didn´t ask her what was wrong. "Is the Prefects´ Bathroom okay?"_

_They walked alongside to the bathroom, each too wrapped up in their own thoughts to say anything. Alicia kept glancing over at George, trying to figure out what was on his mind. His face gave her no clue; it was closed and unreadable._

_Outside the entrance to the bathroom she quickly muttered the password and entered, George following close behind. Their hands brushed against each other for a moment, and he flinched and pulled it away. Alicia gave him a confused look, but his face still gave away nothing of what he felt._

_She sat down at the edge of the pool. "What did you want to talk to me about?"_

_For the first time George´s face betrayed a little of his feelings, and to Alicia it seemed as though he looked almost… afraid. She couldn´t see why it would be so. After all, you´re not supposed to be afraid of talking to your own girlfriend._

"_Um… Okay, you see, the thing is…" he broke off, took a deep breath, and started over again. "I guess you´ve noticed that I´ve been a little distant for some time now?" _

_She shrugged. "I suppose so." In fact, she had noticed, but she hadn´t really thought much about it. He was always planning some pranking scheme with his brother and not paying much attention to other things._

"_Good. Well, the thing is, Fred and I have this plan. We have decided that we are going to… to leave school."_

"_What!" Suddenly she was on her feet. "You´re leaving? But you can´t leave! It´s your last year at school, you have to finish it!"_

_George shook his head. "No, we don´t. We´re going to start our shop, we´ve already got a nice place in Diagon Alley, but we have to take it soon. This is our big chance. We have to seize it! So…we´re leaving tomorrow."_

_Alicia stared at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Tomorrow?" _

"_Yeah. And there´s something more I need to tell you, too." He paused for a moment. "You and me, our relationship… I don´t think this is working."_

"_Not working?" she repeated slowly. "What do you mean _not workingI_ think our relationship is working just fine!" Her eyes shot fire as she looked at him, daring him to contradict her._

_He dared to. "Well, I don´t agree with you there," he said irritably. Seeing her face, he added quickly: "There´s nothing wrong with you. I just… I think we´ve grown apart."_

"_Oh, you do, do you?" she shouted. "Then perhaps you should have told me about that a little earlier! We could have talked about it, worked on it, fixed things! But now, when you finally tell me, you are leaving!" She paused, but only for a moment. "What is your problem?"_

"_Leesh…" George tried._

"_Don´t Leesh´ me! I don´t understand how you can do this. I love you, George!" Having said that, she turned and fled from the room, crying as she ran._

xxxxx

She had never got to tell him her news. It was probably for the best, she had told herself, if he had known he would just have felt sorry for her. And if there was one thing she didn´t want from him it was pity.

But with or without George, Alicia still had to face the harsh reality: that her brother Eric was dead, killed in something as stupid as a bar brawl by a man he had never met before in his life. She couldn´t believe that it was true. Yet it had happened, and nothing could be done about it. Eric was gone forever.

He had been seven years older than her, so they had never played much together or been particularly close. But he was her brother, he had always looked after her, no matter what. When he had first heard that she had a boyfriend, he had come to Hogsmeade the next weekend they went there to check that he´s good enough for _my_ sister´. Alicia had curtly informed him that she was perfectly able to take care of herself, thank you, but he had come anyway. George had won his approval, though, when he had promised never to break her heart. A promise he now had broken.

And she couldn´t even get Eric to beat him up, because she no longer had Eric.

xxxxx

The day after the break-up Alicia stood among the other students and saw the Weasley twins leave school, making themselves legendary. She didn´t cry. Angelina did, though, as soon as they got back to the dormitory. Alicia and Katie comforted her as best they could, reminding her that Fred had promised to wait for her when she left school. When Katie asked Alicia if she and George had made any arrangements, Alicia merely turned her back and pretended not to have heard her. She didn´t want to tell them, not yet. At the moment she wasn´t even able to cope with it herself.

She had told them eventually, of course. They were her best friends, and she couldn´t keep anything hidden from them for long. Besides, she needed their support to get through the rest of the year, to keep going without George.

The year was almost over now, and she had made it through it. She had done her duties as Head Girl as she should, been a brilliant Chaser for the Quidditch team, and in short been a perfect student. Her NEWTs were finished, and she had a feeling she had passed them without any problems. School was almost over for her, now she had to enter real life. She wasn´t sure how to handle that. It had always seemed so far off in the distance. And now… now it was almost there.

_This is probably the last time I´m here, _she suddenly realized with a mixture of pain and relief as she found a towel and started drying herself. Perhaps when she left Hogwarts and all the things here that reminded her of George, she would be able to forget him and move on.

Then again, perhaps not.

Angelina was waiting for her when she exited the bathroom. She didn´t say anything, only put her arm around her friend and led her gently back to their room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.

**A/n:** I have decided to put this story on hiatus. The reason for this is that I have lost my inspiration for it, and I don't want to keep giving you short, bad chapters like this one. However, I hope that given some space, I'll be able to continue it. For now, enjoy this chapter, and feel free to check out my new one-shot "Freckles", the prequel to "You Make Me Beautiful".

This chapter is dedicated to slytherinphoenix7 for pushing me well over 100 reviews on "You Make Me Beautiful", and to livetoeat06 for leaving me the most wonderful review ever.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves!" Fred shouted out as he and George sped out of the main door of Hogwarts and left school forever. The last sound they heard was the tumultuous applause from the other students resounding after them.

For a while they flew in silence, both of them too occupied with their own thoughts to say anything.

At last, George spoke. "We really did it, didn´t we?" He was feeling slightly shocked by the fact that they had actually gone through with it.

"Yeah, we did it." Fred seemed to be equally surprised. "We´ve left school, before we have even taken our NEWTs. Who´d have thought that? I bet no one´s ever done that before."

"I think you might just be right." George paused for a minute. "Boy, is mum going to be mad." From Fred´s pained expression he guessed that he wasn´t the only one thinking about their mother´s probable reaction to the news. It wasn´t a pleasant thought.

"George?" his brother said suddenly, ripping him out of the imaginary scolding. "D´you reckon we have to grow up now? I mean, we have our own business and all, perhaps we ought to act a bit more mature?"

George shuddered at the thought. "Nah," he said after considering it for a moment. "I mean, it´s a joke shop. People obviously can´t expect us to be serious when we run a _joke shop_. They´d be stupid if they did."

"Well, that´s a relief." He grinned. "I don't think I´m ready to grow up just yet." George nodded. He knew what that felt like.

Alicia had wanted him to grow up. She hadn´t exactly said it, but it had been obvious how she felt. It wasn´t fair, really. Just because she was Head Girl and a responsible person it didn´t mean she had to try making him responsible too.

xxxxx

_George looked around at platform 9 ¾ and grinned to himself. Another year at Hogwarts was waiting, and he chuckled inside as he imagined all the pranks he and Fred would play on people. They had some pretty brilliant stuff ready that he was longing to test out. Preferably on a Slytherin._

"_George!" Suddenly he was wrapped in Alicia's arms and she was hugging him tightly. He returned the embrace, throwing a quick glance at Fred and seeing that he too was being welcomed by his girlfriend. Grinning, he turned his full attention back to Alicia, kissing her deeply._

_At last they had to come up for air. "Hello there, gorgeous," George murmured softly, looking down at her. "Haven't seen you in ages."_

"_Oh, you're the one to talk," Alicia said. "I'm not the one who didn't reply to a single one of the owls they got this summer, remember?"_

_He frowned, surprised at the sudden sharpness in her voice. "Is something wrong, Leesh?"_

_She looked down. "Well… It's just that I've worried about you. And I really wish that you could've bothered to owl me at least once."_

"_Oh." What could he say to that? He made a feeble attempt to explain. "Look, Leesh, I'm sorry about that. But I have a good reason, I promise."_

"_And what's that good reason?" _

"_Er… I can't tell you that. But believe me, it's good." He gave her a hopeful look, willing her to say that she understood. But she didn't._

"_What's your problem, George? I'm your girlfriend. You should be able to tell me things."_

xxxxx

"Hey, George?" Fred said suddenly. "I was just wondering about something… What´d Leesh say when you told her you were leaving? I don´t wanna be nosy or anything, but Angie was pretty upset when I told her, so…" His voice trailed off.

George nodded. "I get it," he assured his brother.

"So what´d she say?"

"Well…" He hesitated. "I guess you could say that she didn´t take it too well. But I think that´s mostly because I broke up with her."

"What? You dumped her?" The expression on Fred´s face was unmistakeably one of pure shock.

George ducked his head before answering the question. "Yeah, I did. You got a problem with that?" he said aggressively.

"No… Well, just a little one. You spent so much time and effort getting that girl, and now you´re suddenly tired of her? That, my brother, is insane."

"It´s not!"

"Yes, it is."

"Is not!" He glared at Fred, then gave in. "All right. Maybe I am a little insane. The thing is… This is going to sound stupid, but I don´t think I ever really expected us to get together." He glanced quickly over at his brother to see if he was going to make fun of him, but found that he was listening attentively. Reassured, George continued. "So, when we actually got together, I wasn´t ready for a real relationship."

Fred snorted. "That´s crap, and you know it. If _I_ am ready for a real relationship, you are too!"

George shook his head. "No, I don´t think so. You and Angie are different. Everyone has always known that you´re meant to be together. Me and Leesh, we… We just weren´t meant to be."

Having said that, he suddenly sped up the broom and flew a little distance up ahead, making it clear that he was finished with discussing the theme.

Alicia lay behind him now, in the past. In front of him lay the joke shop and the future.

xxxxx

"Well, it's certainly dusty in here," George said and sneezed as if to emphasize his point. Fred laughed.

"Yeah, we're gonna have to clean it up a bit," he agreed. "But isn't it brilliant?"

George looked around at the dusty shelves in the empty store and nodded. It _was _brilliant. It was theirs.

"How soon d'you reckon we can open it?" he asked, already going over all the things that needed to be done in his mind.

"There's a fair bit of work that needs to be done. But we can work quickly, can't we? I say two weeks."

"Isn't that a bit optimistic? Remember, we have to actually make the products before we can start selling them."

"We can do it. I'm sure. We can give up sleeping if we have to, can't we?" Fred was a picture of confidence, and George found himself grinning.

"Sure we can. Let's get started!" He grabbed the nearest shelf and started dusting it furiously, resulting in another violent sneeze. His brother laughed behind him. "Oh, shut up. It'll happen to you too."

"No, I don't think so," Fred said and grinned. "But let's work now, okay? You can marvel at my good luck later."

George scowled at him.

"Just wait till _you_ sneeze," he muttered to himself. "Then we'll see who has the last laugh."


End file.
